"Jeepers Creepers" - Lucien Barbarin

“Jeepers Creepers” (PDF) from the Kermit Ruffins album, We Partyin’ Traditional Style!

Written by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer, “Jeepers Creepers” was nominated for an Academy Award for its featured performance in the 1938 film Going Places, in which Louis Armstrong portrayed an “Uncle Tom” character who sings the adoring song to a racehorse. While it wasn’t the most degrading role that a Depression-era Hollywood had assigned to Armstrong, as detailed by researcher Austin Graham, the classist and racial stereotypes used in film reflected the opulence of the roaring past to audiences who could afford a vacation from a Dust Bowl reality.

In actuality, musicians like Kermit Ruffins and Lucien Barbarin deserve the adulation for presenting “Jeepers Creepers” with the Tin Pan Alley traditions that did more to uplift the image and brilliance of Louis Armstrong than Hollywood ever cared to project. On top of this recording’s frenetic tempo, the use of syncopated phrasing invokes Satchmo’s rhythmic power to punch holes through time with its staccato jabs. Barbarin muscles his way through the Rhythm-like Changes, turnarounds, and tags by relying on the sixth-degree G, leading back to the tonic B-flat with growls, glissandos, and gutbucket tears. Gosh all git up!

Here’s a YouTube interview with Lucien Barbarin about his role as a Preservationist:

Recommended reading: The Savage Genius: Louis Armstrong’s Film Roles in the Depression by Austin Graham. Published by American Studies at The University of Virginia.